Airbnb plans to issue a study Tuesday touting the economic impact of its short-term rentals in Portland, just ahead of a potentially contentious hearing on prospective changes to the city’s land-use rules that would legitimize such rentals.

The San Francisco company and other short-term rental services, such as VRBO, are operating outside of city zoning rules at the moment because they turn residential homes into vacation rentals. Airbnb doesn’t collect lodging taxes, either, the way traditional hotels do.

The planning commission will hold a public hearing on the short-term rental proposal, along with other zoning code tweaks, at 6 p.m. Tuesday. It meets at 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave., Room 2500A, in Portland. Then the package goes to the Portland City Council.

While hundreds of Portland residents list their homes for rent on Airbnb and similar services, many of their neighbors object to the practice, fearing that the “sharing economy” will blur the line between commercial activity and residential neighborhoods.

Existing hotels, through their trade association, have also opposed changing the city’s rules that would allow more competition from short-term rentals.

Airbnb’s study highlights the company’s economic impact, and a cultural role that the report says fits with Portland’s ethos of “collaborative consumption as a more resource-efficient way of sharing.”

• The company had 1,120 hosts listing rentals inside the city in the past year, with just over 48,000 guests staying at those properties.

• 84 percent of Airbnb listings are the owners’ primary residence. (The proposed changes in city land-use laws would restrict short-term rentals to primary residences to prevent residential properties from becoming full-time hotels.)

View full sizeAirbnb's report on its Portland impact includes this map of rentals available in the city.Airbnb image

• The average age of an Airbnb host in Portland is 42.

• Portland Airbnb hosts generate average annual income of $6,860 and rent their homes out for 86 nights a year.

• Airbnb says those guests “supported” 660 jobs in the Portland area and generated an economic impact of $61 million. The company says its guests tend to stay longer (3.9 nights on average) and spend more ($168 a day, on average) than hotel guests.

In a blog post to accompany the study, Molly Turner, an Airbnb policy director, wrote that income from short-term rentals provides supplemental income that helps the company’s hosts afford their homes and “pursue innovative careers and non-traditional forms of work.”

“Airbnb also attracts new travelers to Portland who stay longer and spend more than traditional hotel guests,” Turner wrote. “These travelers are seeking authentic, local experiences in Portland and across Oregon.”

Portland has proposed allowing residents to rent out one or two bedrooms in their primary residence provided the host pays a fee, meets certain code requirements and submits to a city inspection. The rules wouldn’t apply to multifamily apartment or condo buildings.

The proposed changes to the city’s land-use rules are among several ways in which companies are seeking opportunity by remaking the cities in which they operate. A car service called Uber campaigned unsuccessfully last winter to have city transportation rules eased to enable its clients to order a car on their smartphones.

Google is currently seeking changes in rules governing Portland’s parking strips to enable the company to put utility boxes along city streets to help run the company’s proposed Google Fiber high-speed Internet service.

The Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association has opposed changing the city's rules for Airbnb, arguing in a February letter to members of the Portland City Council that operators of short-term rentals would be allowed to operate without the oversight and consumer protection required of typical hotels and motels.

"If an individual is going to promote and rent their property in such a business-like manner, they should be treated like all other competitors and be required to offer the same consumer protections to their customers," wrote Bill Perry, ORLA's vice president of government affairs.

William Gregg, a resident of Southeast Portland’s Buckman neighborhood, expects a large crowd at Tuesday night’s hearing.

Gregg said it may be too late to block short-term rentals entirely, but he said he wants to see them list their city permits in their online ads, face a specified fine for noncompliance, require homeowners to have insurance and to have a specific mechanism for revoking a short-term rental’s permit if it breaks the rules.

“We just think if they’re going to come in they should at least be playing on a more level playing field,” Gregg said.